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Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year....

Well, we made it through Christmas and the New Year. Although with both happening on Sunday...it seems like the holiday never ends....even if you are sort of ready to move on.

I haven't had much time to sew....

There are several things - in addition to my 'works in progress' - that I want to tackle this year...

I am not good at resolutions so I will just take it one step at a time...

just cross things off my mental list as I go along....

But one project near and dear to my heart is the Rose and Star...Clare will be posting a tutorial and guiding the Starlets through the process of English Paper Piecing this fabulous block. My fingers are itching to get started!!!

Essex has a wonderful new linen blend {at least new to me}. It is a yarn dyed linen blend and has a beautiful texture and color. In the shoppe we have both the natural and black. It was the perfect pairing for a pillow {and possibly} quilt that has been growing in my mind.

I have long loved the Red Cross Quilts from the early 1900's. These quilts were used to raise money for the Red Cross which would in turn take care of the soldiers of WWI.

My pillow uses the natural yarn dyed linen as the background and the black yarn dyed linen as the cross....

The front is pick stitched with perle cotton {Valdani size 8....the best perle cotton in my opinion} and includes a little heart of shot cotton...

The back closes with a couple of buttons....with Cross My Heart stamped in little patches...

Such a gorgeous pillow! Such a lovely phrase to use. I'm waiting for a parcel of yardage of the Essex linen/cotton. I decided to use it for my Love quilt. I like the look of bright colours against natural. The quilt along looks amazing. It'll be wonderful to see them popping up all over blogland.

Hi Mary, I have been following you for a little while and just love your gorgeous creations. And this one esp, so very simple but lovely, esp all the hand stitching. You and your blog are one of my favs and I know I am going to learn so much from you. Thank you for sharing so much. Tanya :-)